19th century styletest - New! Now with more mountains!

[Freodin]

After having - for my liking - perfected my copy of a 19th century historical map style (You can see it here, if not the very lastest versions), I have done and tried a myriad of ways to achive an easy and quick way to do the mountain style used in maps from the same source.

Most of these attempts failed... and if they did work, they proved to be neither easy nor quick.

The best method I found... not as easy and quick as I would like... produced this map example.


This is the (part of the) original map it was copied from.



So, what do you say? Good enough?

[Sapiento]

Looks good!

[Chashio]

Yes, I'd say that works pretty well. Except now I'm curious as to what you did to achieve it.

[Chick]

If you do a forum search for "caterpillar mountain brush", you can find some photoshop brushes to make those kind of mountain lines.

Here for example: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=11176

[Freodin]

If you do a forum search for "caterpillar mountain brush", you can find some photoshop brushes to make those kind of mountain lines.

That would have been the easiest and quickest way. But using brushes always limits you to what others have prepared. They are difficult - almost impossible - to correctly adapt.
I just don't like brushes in this regard.

Yes, I'd say that works pretty well. Except now I'm curious as to what you did to achieve it.

Nothing easy and nothing quick.
What I wanted to achive was this "caterpillar" look, but with the option to adjust the lenghth of the single strokes to my needs.
That excluded the commonly used "project a tear-shaped brush along a curve" method... and it excludes brushes.

Just using a tablet, in order to be able to adjust length of strokes, thinkness and brightness by pressure, failed because of my totally inadequade painting and coordination skills. I wanted it to look consistent, and I am just not good enough with a tablet to achive that.


What I did here now is an extension of the way I did my patterned borders on the other maps. I prepare striped patterns in the cardinal directions (12 in this case, not using the 45° angles). Then I mask-paint in the mountain range, using the respective direction-layer based on where I want the lines to point at.

There isn't an easy way to switch between these layers either, and it is also not easy to mark the layers to know which direction they represent... but as I can paint whole areas instead of single lines, it is a bit simpler.

The result is a black(rather:grey)-and-white "caterpillar" on a transparent background. I can now "darken" the upper parts of these lines and "lighten" the lower parts. Because it is black-on-white instead of black-on-transparent, darkening it even adds some thinkness to the darkened lines.

As can be seen in the example, it works quite well on small-scale maps. On larger-scale ones, it also needs a lot of adjustment. Might even be easier to draw it all by hand. (grr)


I tried several (some even successfull) methods to automate the process - utilizing 3-D software. But the effort to prepare the model in a way so that these methods could work proved just too much effort for too little result.

So what do you think? Have I driven myself into a dead-end? Blinded myself to better ways in my attempt to reach my pefect goal?

[Chashio]

I think that we both have a love for experimenting. Haha.

What if you created just one layer for all of the directional lines and use a clone stamp tool to pick up the parts you want and paint them where they should go? Maybe not much easier, but it would be fun to try.

Also, I believe if you take a smudge/blending tool (I'm drawing a blank for the proper name at the moment) and set the brush style (ex: normal/multiply/overlay) to something like darken, I think (I did this awhile ago, sorry) and affecting layers below, then use it on a new layer, you can darken and thicken the lines where you want to... gives kind of a messy pen and ink look to it. I might have taken some notes on that somewhere... if I can find it I'll give you some more detailed setting instructions, but it should be pretty easy to happen upon the right ones if you fiddle a bit.

EDIT: No, okay, here it is. You use a smudge tool with scattering set on pen pressure to create a nice blending tool. Set the brush mode to Darken or Lighten. And I always just made a copy of the layer I was working on so I could backtrack if I wanted to, but you work on the same layer as the ink (so sample all layers is un-checked) and all of the lines are black/color on transparent. Keep the brush strength low and just go lightly over the lines you want to darken/thicken/bleed. The more scattering you have in the tool settings, the more pronounced the bleeding effect on the ink.

Example:

[Freodin]

I think that we both have a love for experimenting. Haha.

What if you created just one layer for all of the directional lines and use a clone stamp tool to pick up the parts you want and paint them where they should go? Maybe not much easier, but it would be fun to try.

Now that's an idea! I usually don't use the clone stamp tool... so I wouldn't have thought of that. But you are right... it will be fun to try. I already have some ideas how to implement it.

Also, I believe if you take a smudge/blending tool (I'm drawing a blank for the proper name at the moment) and set the brush style (ex: normal/multiply/overlay) to something like darken, I think (I did this awhile ago, sorry) and affecting layers below, then use it on a new layer, you can darken and thicken the lines where you want to... gives kind of a messy pen and ink look to it. I might have taken some notes on that somewhere... if I can find it I'll give you some more detailed setting instructions, but it should be pretty easy to happen upon the right ones if you fiddle a bit.

EDIT: No, okay, here it is. You use a smudge tool with scattering set on pen pressure to create a nice blending tool. Set the brush mode to Darken or Lighten. And I always just made a copy of the layer I was working on so I could backtrack if I wanted to, but you work on the same layer as the ink (so sample all layers is un-checked) and all of the lines are black/color on transparent. Keep the brush strength low and just go lightly over the lines you want to darken/thicken/bleed. The more scattering you have in the tool settings, the more pronounced the bleeding effect on the ink.

Another thing to try out. I have been trying all kind of things to "bleed" the single lines on the map: border and graticule and that... this will give me another option.

Thanks a ton... you have lifted me right out of a creative hole!

[Chashio]

No problem. I'd love to see what you do with it next if you come up with something you want to post.

[Ilanthar]

Very nice work on this Freodin. You got a quite convincing result already.

[Azélor]

It look really convincing. The original look very crowded though.